"Hey, man."
Jack nearly jumped out of his skin.
Alec started to laugh.
"Whoa," he said, coming up behind Jack on the couch and slapping Jack on the back. "You all right?"
"I didn't even hear you come in," Jack admitted, still feeling his heart beat wildly against his chest.
Alec continued to laugh. "Oh, man, you missed out last night." He plopped next to Jack, one elbow on the back of the couch so he could place his face in his palm. "There were girls everywhere. The minute I walked out of the locker room, there were girls. They all wanted to get my autograph. Some even had my jersey. My jersey with my name on it." He shook his head as though he was still reliving it, biting his bottom lip. "I can't believe you didn't come out."
"I was tired," Jack said before clearing his throat. He couldn't bring himself to look at his friend, afraid it would be obvious what he had done instead of go out. He didn't need Alec finding out that Jack had slept with Lily.
"You are nineteen fucking years old and you're going to tell me you're tired?" Alec asked. He rolled his eyes. "I don't even know how to respond to that. I mean, you saw the girls outside the locker room, right? How could you still be tired with them looking like that?" He shook his head again, dropping his hand so it fell into his lap. "Are you gay? It's totally cool if you are, bro. You know I don't judge. I'm just not comprehending how you could pass up on last night."
Jack chuckled despite himself. "No, I'm not gay," he said, playing with a hole in his sock. Jack was almost tempted to tell Alec that he fucked Lily since Alec didn't seem to get that Jack wasn't interested in what happened after the game. He might not ever be interested in it, depending on what Lily wanted.
He settled into the back of the couch and let a sigh slip out of his mouth. He glanced over at Alec before kicking up his feet on the coffee table once again. If he wasn't careful, Alec was going to pick up on the fact that Jack wasn't acting like his normal self. He was going to realize that Jack was nervous.
"How was your night?" Jack pressed. He hoped if he got Alec to talk about himself that Alec wouldn't continue to look at Jack with flabbergasted suspicion.
"Um, it was awesome," Alec said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "We went…"
Jack let Alec's voice drift out of his head. He glanced down at his fingers and began to push them back so each one stretched out. He should be listening to his friend, but all he could think about was Lily.
Lily wasn't the type to play games so he didn't understand why she would push him away. They had had sex twice last night. He knew that didn't mean they were together, but he thought…Jack shook his head. He thought that she wanted him just as much as he wanted her. Maybe they weren't together, but he wanted to be. Had he read her completely wrong?
"What's going on with you, man?" Alec asked, slapping Jack on the chest in order to get his attention. "You seem spaced out. You okay?" Jack opened his mouth to respond, but before he had a chance to, Alec leaned back on the couch, kicked his feet onto the coffee table, and pointed his index finger into the sky. "You regret it, huh?"
Jack nearly jumped at the comment. Regret? How could he possibly know about him and Lily? More than that, why wasn't Alec more upset? He figured Alec would at least punch him a couple of times, which Jack was okay with, but he seemed to be more casual about all of this than Jack expected him to be.
"You regret not going out," Alec continued before Jack even had a chance to respond. This was probably a good thing. "I mean, I tried to tell you. I tried to get you to change your mind. Am I being rude? I'm not rubbing this in your face, am I? I'm trying to get you to see what you miss out on when you don't live a little. In fact, I feel sorry for you." He nudged Jack's shoulders as Jack dropped his gaze to his fingers. He started playing with his cuticles. "I mean, trapped in this small apartment with no one but Lily. What could you possibly do, you know?"
Jack nodded his head, a small grin creeping onto his lips. He didn't dare look up, though. He was almost afraid if he did, Alec would be able to see everything on his face. Alec might act stupid at times but he only dumbed himself down to the girls. He was actually pretty perceptive when it came to faces. It was one of the reasons why he was such a formidable hockey player.
"Anyway…" Alec continued on.
Jack felt himself relax, but only slightly. He hadn't really thought about Alec finding out about him and Lily, but now that he was confronted with the possibility of him finding out, maybe Lily was acting rationally. She knew how close Jack and Alec were. Maybe she didn't want to come between them.
But even that explanation didn't appease him.
There was part of Jack that didn't care about Alec, which was selfish and rude, but it was also the truth. Alec shouldn't be a key figure in their relationship. It was none of his business. If he found out…
If he found out, so what?
Yes, Alec would be pissed, and yes, Jack expected to get his ass kicked, but after that, Alec couldn't do anything to them if they wanted to be together.
"…some girl wanted your number," Alec said.
Jack blinked, pulling his eyes away from the coffee table to look at his friend. "What?" he asked, dumbfounded.
"Yeah, that's what I thought." Alec heaved a sigh and shifted his weight. He rolled his eyes dramatically as he tended to do when he felt he wasn't the center of attention. "Jack, man, what's going on with you? I'm talking about how I met four, five women who all wanted to fuck me at one time."
"You did not fuck five women at one time," Jack said flatly.
"No, of course not," Alec said. "I can barely walk and chew gum as it is. You think I'm going to try and divide my attention between five of them? Yeah fucking right. I don't need to ruin my pristine reputation as an amazing lay because I can't handle five women at once. I'm man enough to admit it, too. But I do know that one of them was really interested in you and wanted your number. In fact, a lot of them asked why you didn't come out that night. I didn't even know what to say, man. And now I find you, spaced out and sad. You're bumming me out."
"I'm sorry," Jack said.
"How's your hand? Fucking Crawford is such a bitch-ass. I hear Skaarsgard is okay, though. He should be skating tomorrow."
"That's good." Jack glanced down at his hand. "My hand is fine. Sore, but okay. I can hold a stick, no problem."
Odd, he had completely forgotten about the injury when he was with Lily. He had been holding much more than a stick with her as well.
"I hear the Mayhem barely get any of the calls, just like the Gulls."
"Eh, that's why I'm here. To regulate."
"No, you're here to set up plays and score goals and to win faceoffs. The last thing you should be doing is fighting."
Jack shrugged. "It's in my nature," he said. "I defend. I protect."
"Yeah, but you're paid to—"
Before Alec finish the thought, someone knocked on the door. Jack froze. There was something distinctly familiar with it, something that indicated that Jack should know who this was. He racked his brain, trying to figure out who would track him here. An ex-girlfriend? A supposed friend who wanted tickets to games? Old teammates? He didn't know. And yet, there was a strange sense of foreboding that circled Jack, that caused him to tense, as though he was expecting the worse.
Alec frowned and muttered under his breath about how he wasn't expecting any visitors. He stood up and headed for the door, a little spring in his step. He glanced in the peephole before clearing his throat.
Jack leaned forward.
Alec turned and leaned against the door. He mouthed two words to Jack:
Your mom.
Jack furrowed his brow and stood up. What the hell was she doing here?
12
Lily
Lily knew this was probably the dumbest thing she had ever done—after making that video, of course. At least she had no knowledge of the video even being made. She waited in her room, pacing a new groove in the carpet,
until 5:57AM hit. At this point, she thought it was a reasonable enough hour to get out of her apartment and head straight for her ex's. She would jog so no one would suspect her of doing something uncharacteristic. She didn't care if it was still raining, she would get to Andrew's place and make him take down the video.
Lily quietly stepped out of her room. She could see Jack on the couch, his chest rising and falling. Her heart clenched. A small voice inside of her head told her to let this go, get the cops involved, and crawl into Jack's arms.
But she couldn't.
Would Jack even want to look at her after this? On the off chance that actually wanted more than just sex—which, for Jack, was practically unheard of—there was no way he would even consider being with someone who was now on a porn site, or wherever Andrew received the money. It didn't matter that she didn't want this. Jack had his own reputation to protect. Maybe he could get away with it if he was already a big name, but he was at the start of his career.
She shook her head and forced her feet to walk past him. She would not let herself linger, even if she wanted to. Lily needed to handle this on her own. She hoped…
Lily grunted as she slipped outside. From where she stood, the black clouds from yesterday were still fixed in the sky. However, besides a light drizzle, there didn't seem to be too much rain.
That was fine with Lily. She could work with this.
Andrew Corwin hadn't moved since he first got to Irvine in the second grade. When his parents retired, they wanted land. They used their savings to buy a four-acre lot in Oregon where they had stables and lots of space, leaving Andrew their place in Irvine. Lily still remembered sitting on the curb in her mother's beat-up Ford pickup, waiting for Andrew to tell her she could come inside. His parents never liked him bringing girls over, so he would wait until they left—either on a date or picking up dinner—and sneak her in while they were gone. Lily had finished lots of homework in that Ford, just waiting for Andrew to tell her it was okay to come in.
She didn't realize until after she broke up with him that waiting wasn't something she should be doing for anyone.
The house was in the Woodbridge community, on West Yale Loop, buried with other houses part of the Woodbridge community. It was a longer jog than Lily anticipated but she pushed through it. At least it helped channel her frustrated energy into something constructive. The light rain helped keep her cold. It was an odd balm, soothing her, keeping her calm when all she wanted to do was boil over.
When she saw the house, she stopped completely. She inhaled deeply, catching her breath after her run, and placed her hands on her hips in order to help expand her lungs. However, she moved no further than her position on the sidewalk. The familiar gray house was not inviting. Rather, her fight or flight reflex kicked in and she felt herself be pulled away, anywhere but here. Her eyes took in the black lettering on the door, the cracked 4, the peeling 9. Mrs. Corwin's flowers that had once lined the walkway up to the house were now overgrown with weeds. Someone mowed the lawn, however, and she wondered if Andrew himself did that in order to save on costs or if he actually hired a gardener to do it. Lawns were not allowed to be overgrown. Not in Irvine.
She took a deep breath. She wasn't going to get anything accomplished standing outside and staring. Her texts had done nothing but fall on deaf ears. Andrew didn't respond. Why would he? It was easy to ignore her when he had already gotten what he wanted: money and quite possibly notoriety. Maybe if he saw her in person, maybe then she could compel him to do something.
"Just go up there," she muttered to herself. "Stop standing around and do it."
She probably looked like a crazy person, talking to herself, staring at a house that didn't belong to her in the rain. Lily wouldn't be surprised if a neighbor called the cops on her. They would investigate it too, because Irvine PD investigated everything. Hopefully, Lily would be gone by then, though.
"Five," she began to count backwards. "Four, three, two—"
Before she got to one, she proceeded to walk up to the house. She shook out her hand, suddenly hit with a cold sensation. Now that she wasn't running, her body wasn't being kept warm by movement. She needed to hurry up with Andrew so she could start running again.
When she got to the door, Lily made sure she didn't even hesitate. She curled her finger into a fist and knocked on the door. Her body was still tense but she bounced her weight from left to right and then back to left. At least it was movement, even if it didn't work the same way running did.
What if Andrew wasn't home? What would she do then?
You come back, a voice told her. You get your shit together and you come back until you get rejected by him. Then, you take it to the police.
Lily nodded, pressing her lips together. At least this way, she was giving Andrew a chance. She could show the police—if it got that far—that she was making the effort to solve this thing as best as she could.
The door creaked open. "Who is—what are you doing here?" Andrew pulled the door all the way open the second he saw it was Lily. There was a sardonic twist to his lips, a smugness about him that she didn't appreciate in the slightest. An impassioned part of her wanted to punch it off of his face, but that wouldn't exactly mean she was handling things with grace.
"Let me guess," he continued, leaning his lean body against the door frame and crossing his arms over his chest. The tattered blue robe he wore fell open at his chest, revealing a maroon T-shirt. It was the same stuff he wore in high school. "You came to discuss the video. I got your text last night and chose not to respond. I don't want to fight with you."
"Who said anything about fighting?" Lily asked. She tried to keep her voice steady but the emotions were too much to take and everything came out of her at one time. "I'm here to get the tape down."
"You had your chance," he pointed out. "I gave you the opportunity to pay me money and you basically told me to fuck off. That's your problem, not mine."
"Where the hell was I supposed to get that kind of money, Andrew?" Lily shrieked, throwing her arms out.
Andrew furrowed his brow. "Calm down," he said, looking around outside.
"Calm down?" Lily felt like she had been slapped across the face. She blinked rapidly, shifting her weight. "You post a video of me having sex with you—a video, by the way, I didn't even know existed—and you're telling me to calm down? What, are you afraid your neighbors are going to realize you're a pornographer? That you like to sell sex tapes?" She made sure to raise her voice louder.
"I don't need to deal with this," Andrew said. He stepped back and closed the door but Lily stuck her foot out and prevented the door from closing. "What, Lily? What do you want? What's done is done, okay? The video is out there. I got paid. I gave you the opportunity to pay me to keep it between us. Don't forget that—I gave you that opportunity. You chose to ignore me. You were rude. You didn't think I would do it, but I did."
"Where would I have gotten that kind of money?" Lily demanded.
"Well, isn't your brother a Gull now, or whatever?" He furrowed his brow, waving to someone tensely behind Lily. "I know he signed with them."
"You're an idiot, you know that?" Lily asked in a low voice. "And you know nothing about professional hockey. I'm not going to tell Alec that my ass of an ex filmed his sister having sex and then tried to blackmail her for money because you would be dead right now. He would kill you. You know that."
"I know nothing."
Lily snorted. "I couldn't have said it better myself," she said. She shifted her weight. "Why did you do that?"
"What?"
"Why did you do that?" She crossed her arms over her chest and locked eyes with Andrew. She didn't care how long it took, but she promised herself she would not leave until she got some kind of answer from him. "Why would you sell a video of us in high school? You have a house completely paid off. You—"
"I'm nothing!" Andrew barked before clamping his mouth shut. "I'm nothing." He repeated the words but his voice was softer. "I'm l
iving in a house my parents bought. I have no job. I dropped out of college. I have nothing of my own. Hell, I'm not even dating anyone. You think anyone is going to want to date me when they find out I'm past due on my phone bill, I have no car insurance, and I can't even get a part-time job to save my life? Ha! This was my last resort. I had hoped you would stop me. I gave you the chance. You chose to do nothing about it."
"So it's my fault?"
"You're doing something with your life," Andrew pointed out. "You're going to UCI, right? Your brother got drafted to play for the Gulls. Hometown kid playing for a professional hockey team. That video was my last resort."
"You know I have to go to the police, right, Andrew?" Lily asked.
"If you feel you have to do that—"
"Of course I have to do that," Lily snapped. "Do you think I feel sorry for you? You chose to drop out of college because suddenly it was too hard. You're pathetic. God, I am so glad you broke up with me. Seeing you defend your actions of selling a video of you having sex with your girlfriend from when we're both in high school is pathetic. You're fucking lazy and I'm going to get it removed. You are what's wrong with the world, you know that? You are why people hate millennials. You're entitled, degrading, and a big, giant asshole."
"You're going to wake up the neighbors," Andrew said in a hushed voice.
"You think I care about the neighbors?" Lily asked. "You can stop this, Andrew. Just tell me who you spoke with that arranged this deal. Get me the info and I'll leave. You won't hear from me directly again."
"What do you mean, directly?" Andrew asked.
"Andrew, why are you showing me this video—"
"Okay, just shut up, okay?" Andrew disappeared out the door and returned a minute later with a piece of paper. "His name was Sandy. I didn't get a last name. This is his email address. His site was taking submissions and he liked mine. Offered me money on the spot."
Rookies Do It Better: Book 1 in The Minor League Mayhem Series Page 7
